New NICE guidance for managing the treatment of hyperkalaemia

Hyperkalaemia is a condition where you have too much potassium in your blood and is common in people with kidney problems. For more information about the condition see our hyperkalaemia page

Food we eat contains different amounts of potassium and your kidneys help to remove excess potassium from the body in the form of urine (wee). If your kidneys are not working as well as they should they cannot get rid of the excess potassium and it builds up in your blood. Potassium is removed during dialysis.

Drug treatments for hyperkalaemia include potassium binders, such as Lokelma and Patiromer. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have recently recommended both Lokelma and Patiromer for the treatment of high levels of potassium in certain cases. This includes in emergency care for life-threatening hyperkalaemia and in people who would otherwise have to reduce or stop blood pressure tablets because the tablets are increasing their levels of potassium.

Kidney Care UK were on the appraisal committee developing this guidance and explained the patient point of view. We talked about the difficulty of maintaining a low-potassium diet with kidney failure, and said that new solutions were needed to support patients.